Bryan Crain, right, a volunteer with the Orange County Rescue Mission's Chili Van, dishes out bowls of hot chili to the homeless in downtown Santa Ana. The Chili Van feeds the homeless in Santa Ana every Thursday. LEONARD ORTIZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Homeless in downtown Santa Ana line up for hot bowls of chili from the Orange County Rescue Mission's Chili Van. LEONARD ORTIZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Volunteers with the Orange County Rescue Mission's Chili Van serve hot bowls of chili to the homeless in downtown Santa Ana. LEONARD ORTIZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Homeless in downtown Santa Ana line up for hot bowls of chili and coffee from the Orange County Rescue Mission's Chili Van. LEONARD ORTIZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Golden Envelope

The Orange County Register's gift cheque program is a $12.4million investment plan launched by the paper in November.

The paper sent 124,000 seven-day Register subscribers "golden envelopes" containing a $100 cheque. Subscribers then designated a 501(c)3 charitable program in Orange County as the beneficiary.

More than 1,300 charities will receive free advertising in the Register or any of its weekly or biweekly community newspapers under the program, which can be used to promote their missions and fundraising efforts.

Orange County Rescue Mission

Total revenue: $16.455 million

Total expenses: $16.608 million

Program spending: $13.357 million

Management spending: $1.776 million

Fundraising spending: $1.474 million

Net assets*: $44.547 million

Source: Orange County Rescue Mission; *at year end Sept. 30, 2012

Helping to solve homelessness has been a lifelong calling for Newport Beach native Jim Palmer.

"Down the street, growing up, a family became homeless," said Palmer, president of Orange County Rescue Mission. "I tried everything I could – going to the school, the city, anyone to help. But I was a kid, and the family ultimately disappeared. It was then that I personally felt a calling to help the homeless."

When he started working with the organization 20 years ago, the charity had a single facility for the homeless and wanted to build a new shelter, called the House of Hope, in Orange.

"That was the first project I did," Palmer said. "I remember I was standing at the site and got a call on my phone. 'Hey, do you remember me? My mom and I lived down the street from you.' It was the boy from my childhood. Yes, I said to him, that's what I've been working on most of my life. A place you and your mom could have come to."

Today, the rescue mission works to widen its reach throughout Orange County.

The charity's efforts are being noticed in more ways than one. Orange County Register subscribers earmarked $159,000 in advertising for the rescue mission through the newspaper's Golden Envelope voucher program.

The charity maintains seven campuses around Orange County. The largest is the five-acre Village of Hope in Tustin.

The Village has been open for five years and has 192 beds, serving 600 to 700 meals daily. The campus is a transitional housing facility that lets individuals or families stay from 13 months to two years. During the first six months of stay, students, as the residents are called, go to counseling, Bible study, mandatory Saturday night chapel services and anger management classes while working full-time at The Village.

The program is structured according to individual and family needs, said Ryan Burris, chief relationship officer for the rescue mission.

"We find out what our students' passions are," said Burris. "Then we try to place them into that."

After their initial six months on campus, students go through a one-week job workshop. Shortly after that, students begin working full-time and saving money to move out on their own.

On campus, the rescue mission provides medical, dental, chiropractic, eye care and legal clinics as well as child care, tutoring and work centers, clothing and anything else students may need while getting back onto their feet.

Off campus, the charity provides mobile medical and law clinics that travel throughout Orange County, as well as a mobile Chili Van that travels once a week to Dana Point and to Santa Ana to feed the homeless.

Bryan Crain, who helped start the Chili Van when it was a mom-and-pop initiative, became an Orange County Rescue Mission volunteer in January 2011 when the charity took over and expanded the project.

"I knew there was no way I could make the chili dinner every week for 300 people, and I didn't have a big truck," Crain said. "So we sat down with Jim to see if the rescue mission would be interested in taking this thing under their wing. Jim said, 'Yeah, we can do that, no problem.'"

The Rescue Mission had just been donated a Marriot van that was converted to host the mobile chili dinners.

The Rescue Mission Chili Van serves between 100 to 300 people at 4:15 p.m. Tuesdays in Dana Point and 4:45 p.m. Thursdays in Santa Ana.

In 2012, the Orange County Rescue Mission served more than 23,000 people through all of its programs.

"We want to maintain that level and grow it," Palmer said. "What makes us unique is that we're able to attack the whole spectrum of needs."

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